Date: Mon, 24 Apr 1995 09:32:33 +0500 From: ghmcleaf{CONTRACTOR/ASPEN/ghmcleaf}%NAC-GATEWAY.ASPEN@ace.aspensys.com AIDS Daily Summary April 24, 1995 The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National AIDS Clearinghouse makes available the following information as a public service only. Providing this information does not constitute endorsement by the CDC, the CDC Clearinghouse, or any other organization. Reproduction of this text is encouraged; however, copies may not be sold, and the CDC Clearinghouse should be cited as the source of this information. Copyright 1995, Information, Inc., Bethesda, MD ************************************************************ "Australian Gay Sets Up Sperm Bank for Lesbians" "French Create Committee for Economic Intelligence" "End to Red Cross Monopoly Urged" "UC Berkeley Team Wins BofA Low Income Housing Challenge" "Gabon Bans Two Dailies over Pimping Trial" "AIDS Progression Fostered by Dioxin?" "Prevention of HIV Infection" "HIV-1 Recombinant Poxvirus Vaccine Induces Cross-Protection against HIV-2 Challenge in Rhesus Macaques" "Coccidioidomycosis" "Why I'm Resigning from the ACLU" ************************************************************ "Australian Gay Sets Up Sperm Bank for Lesbians" Reuters (04/24/95) A gay man on Australia's island state of Tasmania--where homosexual sex is illegal--is attempting to create a network to supply sperm to lesbians denied access to mainstream banks. Richard X, whose surname was withheld, plans to collect the sperm in glass jars and inseminate the women with syringes. "It's much safer than what exists now where lesbians have to have casual sex," said Rodney Croome, a spokesman for the Tasmanian Gay and Lesbian Rights Group. Tasmania's conservative government, however, has said it will investigate the safety standards of the unofficial sperm bank. The Australian Medical Association urged the sperm bank to freeze the specimens for six months to ensure that HIV and hepatitis are screened out. "French Create Committee for Economic Intelligence" Journal of Commerce (04/24/95) P. 10A; Patel, Tara Last week, the French government announced the creation of a committee responsible for overseeing the collection of "economic intelligence" used for keeping French companies aware of emerging markets and technologies. Although France is the third largest producer of scientific, technological, and economic information, government statistics indicate that it ranks only 16th in the world for using this sort of information. The government says it is inadequately equipped, compared to its primary economic rivals, in effectively using strategic economic information. The committee members include Luc Montagnier, a prominent French researcher who discovered the virus that causes AIDS. "End to Red Cross Monopoly Urged" Toronto Globe and Mail (04/21/95) P. A4; Picard, Andre A report by the Canadian Hemophilia Society calls for a radical rethinking of Canada's blood system in the wake of the contaminated-blood tragedy that infected more than 1,000 people with the virus that causes AIDS. Derhane Wong-Rieger, president of the society, stressed that voluntary donation of whole blood should continue, but that people whose plasma is used to manufacture blood products should be paid. Most plasma donors in the United States are paid $25 to $50 a liter--but they are subject to scrutiny, including medical examinations. What most Canadians do not realize, said Wong-Rieger, is that most blood products used in Canadian hospitals are made from paid-for U.S. plasma. By paying for plasma in Canada, the Canadian Red Cross (CRC)--or another collection agency--would guarantee a sufficient supply and have more say over quality. Currently, the Canadian provinces fund the Canadian Blood Agency--which provides the money to the CRC, which then collects and distributes all blood and blood products in the country. Consumer groups say the current system gives monopoly control to the CRC, a charitable agency which is not accountable in the way a government agency would be. "UC Berkeley Team Wins BofA Low Income Housing Challenge" Business Wire (04/21/95) A team of graduate students from the University of California at Berkeley has won the fourth annual Bank of America Community Development Bank Low Income Housing Challenge. The winning entry was a proposed development in the Mission District of San Francisco, offering 56 units of low-income apartments for large families and people with AIDS. The team will donate the $3,000 cash award to the La Raza Information Center; Iris Counseling Center's program for women with HIV and their children; and La Raza Centro Legal, which offers legal advice to low-income area residents. "Gabon Bans Two Dailies over Pimping Trial" Reuters (04/22/95) On Saturday, Gabon banned two opposition newspapers--La Griffe and Le Bucheron--accused of publishing what officials called French press propaganda against President Omar Bongo, who is involved in a pimping scandal. According to an interior ministry order, the papers are accused of "publishing without proof attacks from the French press." In the trial, Italian couturier Francesco Smalto is charged in France with providing prostitutes for Bongo. Rumors mentioned in testimony suggest that the president has AIDS; however, his doctor claims he is in good health. French newspapers giving wide publicity to the trial--including Le Monde, Le Nouvel Observateur, Le Figaro, and France Soir--are now considered banned in Gabon. "AIDS Progression Fostered by Dioxin?" Science News (04/08/95) Vol. 147, No. 14, P. 214; Raloff, J. In the April issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, scientists at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center report their finding of a binding site for the aryl hydrogen (Ah), to which dioxins and other toxins bind. The site is located in the part of HIV's genetic material where regulatory proteins bind to activate viral genes, an area known as the long-terminal repeat. The researchers inserted a bacterial gene called CAT into the long-terminal repeat to determine the importance of the receptor. Mouse liver cells were then injected with the altered virus to gauge the extent to which HIV activated CAT when the cells were exposed to various toxins. While TCDD--the most toxic dioxin--and three combustion by-products doubled or tripled CAT activity, Benzo(a)pyrene--a carcinogen found in cigarette smoke--and aflatoxin B(1)--a fungal poison--quintupled CAT response. None of the compounds, however, affected the activity of CAT in a mutant form of HIV lacking the Ah receptor binding site or in cells protected against free radicals. The follow-up tests confirm that both the receptor binding site and free radical must be present in the cell for the activation of HIV by these pollutants, concludes Alvaro Puga, who spearheaded the studies. "Prevention of HIV Infection" Journal of the American Medical Association (04/12/95) Vol. 273, No. 14, P. 1143; Stryker, Jeff; Coates, Thomas J.; DeCarlo, Pamela et al. More than 10 years of experience with HIV has shown that long-term changes in behavior needed to avoid HIV-infection can result from targeted, persistent HIV risk-reduction efforts. Some people, however, see the 40,000 new HIV infections in the United States each year as proof that HIV education and prevention efforts have failed. It is indeed true--as observed in other health behavior-change efforts--that no interventions are likely to completely reduce the risk of HIV infection. In fact, inflated expectations of HIV risk-reduction programs may actually reduce their effectiveness. Several social, cultural, and attitudinal obstacles still hamper HIV risk-reduction programs. The importance of continued emphasis on HIV prevention and education has been highlighted by the remote chances for a successful HIV vaccine, and the difficulty of finding potent drug therapies. The authors identify several "correlates of immunity"--including sound policies that reduce risk reduction, access to health and social services, and the development of technologies to stop the spread of HIV--that are necessary to make prevention possible. "HIV-1 Recombinant Poxvirus Vaccine Induces Cross-Protection against HIV-2 Challenge in Rhesus Macaques" Nature Medicine (04/95) Vol. 1, No. 4, P. 321; Abimiku, Alash'le G.; Franchini, Genoveffa; Tartaglia, James et al. Abimiku et al. injected rhesus macaques with attenuated vaccinia or canarypox HIV-1 recombinants, then boosted them with peptides or HIV-1 proteins prepared in alum. These animals were chosen because they are susceptible to several simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV) strains as well as to HIV-2. Following challenge with HIV-2 (SBL6669), three of the eight immunized macaques resisted infection for six months. Infection in another was significantly delayed, but all three naive controls became infected. Immunizations displayed both humoral and cellular immune responses. No distinct correlates of protection, however, were established. This instance of cross protection between HIV-1 and HIV-2 indicates that viral variability may not be an invincible problem in the design of a global AIDS vaccine, the scientists concluded. "Coccidioidomycosis" New England Journal of Medicine (04/20/95) Vol. 332, No. 16, P. 1077; Stevens, David A. A recent epidemic in California of the fungal infection coccidioidomycosis, and the disease's possible association with HIV have renewed interest in the infection. People with compromised immune systems, infants, and non-white people are particularly susceptible to Coccidioides immitis infection. The T lymphocyte is crucial to a successful immune response, and thymectomy or corticosteroid therapy, for example, increases the vulnerability to infection. Unlike healthy individuals, immunocompromised patients may also have disseminated and aggressive pulmonary disease. A prospective study suggests that each year, 10 percent of people in areas of endemic disease who are infected with HIV will contract active coccidioidomycosis infections. These infections are especially likely in patients with fewer than 250 CD4 cells. Although most people with primary C. immitis infection recover without therapy, patients with severe primary infection should consider treatment with amphotericin B or the oral azoles. Prolonged chemotherapy is always indicated in patients with disseminated disease. "Why I'm Resigning from the ACLU" Village Voice (04/18/95) Vol. 40, No. 16, P. 20; Hentoff, Nat The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) remains valuable for some matters, such as opposing the death penalty or humanizing prison conditions. Author Nat Hentoff, however, says he can no longer be associated with the organization that sacrifices the lives of children and reduces the life expectancy of their mothers to a inflexible principle grounded in ignorance of medical facts. The clearest example of the ACLU's unintentional "evil" as it fights to prevent the mandatory identification of HIV-infected infants is in the lawsuit filed in the New York Supreme Court by the Association to Benefit Children (ABC). The ABC lawsuit calls for the mandatory HIV testing within 30 days of birth of all children born in New York state. The results will only be disclosed to the doctor and the mother. Although neither the ACLU nor its principal allies in this venture--the Gay Men's Health Crisis, the National Organization for Women, and the National Abortion Rights Action League--are mentioned in the suit, they have made the suit necessary. In this case, the ACLU's concern is with the mothers' privacy rights--not with the civil liberties of the HIV-infected child, concludes Hentoff.